i

It had been over a month since Saaya had been suspended from school. A whole month without being harassed or bullied. Everything should have been fine. Amu was even dating the most handsome, kind person in school. Everything should have been perfect. It should have been perfect. Except it wasn't.

For some reason, Amu still had horrible nightmares almost every night. It would get to the point that the dreams were so bad that sometimes, it made the prospect of sleeping so unbearable that she would just not sleep at all. It was almost always the same dream but would change who was in it. Except the one antagonist of the nightmares.

In the dreams, she was always running in an attempt to escape from someone trying to kill her. She could never quite make out who it was right, but it was definitely the same person each time and the usual weapon in hand, a switchblade, was unmistakable. Sometimes, though, the weapon was different. Sometimes a firearm, sometimes a Katana blade or any other sharp weapon. Amu would never wake up until the antagonist was looming right over her, gun cocked towards her head or sharp weapon pressed under her chin. Sometimes it wasn't even Amu who was being threatened, instead, her friends or family.

The only saving grace of her dreams was her boyfriend Tadase. Sometimes, she could will herself to bring Tadase into the dream by thinking of him or talking to him before she slept. When that did happen, she was able to feel a little bit at ease and would wake up with a smile on her face, as he would find a way to save her, which would at the very least, make her not wake up in tears, panting and sweating.

Unfortunately, even though they had only really known each other for 2 and a half months by now, Tadase would still notice when Amu didn't get much sleep, even with makeup on to try and cover it up. While she appreciated the concern, she didn't like thinking about or rehashing her nightmares to him so she would avoid telling him about them.

Amu woke up from one of those 'pleasant twist' nightmares to hear her phone vibrating on her side table. She grabbed her phone and unlocked it to see who the message was from. There were two; one was from Tadase, which she immediately beamed ear to ear at. The other message was from Lulu, who had to be filled in on everything after Saaya had been suspended. She replied to Tadase's message first.

[From: Tadase-kun

Good afternoon, Amu-chan!
Did you stay up late again because it's the weekend?
Message me back whenever you get this
Tadase]

Amu smiled fondly at the message. To be fair to Lulu, she checked her message before replying to Tadase's. Lulu's accent was easily detectable even in her messages, despite her trying to act all prim and proper most of the time. Sometimes she enjoyed using Emojis.

[From: Lulu

Afternoon, Amu!
Hope ya didn't stay up too late last night again, that ain't good for your health!
Ya got some time to hang out today? There's a new cafe I've been fixin' to try!
See ya!]

Amu hummed softly, replying to Tadase as she thought of a good time to meet Lulu. She debated whether she even wanted to go out, having only gone to bed at three or four in the morning. Still, seeing her friends on the weekend was fun and could get her eyes off of things. She was sure Tadase was going to ask her out later as well. If she tried to refuse both Lulu and Tadase they would both worry and she didn't want that. She finished replying to Tadase and looked it over.

[To: Tadase-kun

Good afternoon to you too, Tadase-kun!
I didn't stay up late, I promise. But I'll try to stop.
I'll make sure to go to sleep extra early tonight.
But come on, who doesn't stay up late on weekends?]

Sure, she may have made a little white lie, but she was going to try to sleep earlier tonight, for Tadase's sake because she hated worrying Tadase so much. If he somehow managed to find out that she had stayed up late, she usually had an excuse ready; homework, having to deal with her hyper sister, anything that seemed believable. Sometimes, however, the homework excuse didn't work and was starting to get old, since they shared most of the same classes and studied together often.

Amu sent the message to Tadase and moved on to reply to Lulu. It took her a while to get used to how she typed, with her Nagoya accent, but after being taught the basics of the accent by Lulu, texting her became a bit easier.

[To: Lulu

I didn't stay up that late, don't worry. Like…3:30am maybe?
That's pretty good for me, right? At least it's not 5 am like a couple of days ago!
It's past one but we can meet up for 1:30 if you want.
Let me get ready and I'll text you when I'm good.]

Faster than lightning, Lulu gave an immediate response to hers. Amu wondered how she read and typed so fast, considering Amu had written a few sentences simultaneously.

[From: Lulu

Alright, I'll give you that.
I hope ya managed to sleep well regardless
I'll see ya then, Amu!]

Amu chuckled and set her phone down, dragging herself to her feet to get herself ready. She ran to take a quick shower and then dawned a mock two-piece dress with a red plaid skirt and a band-tee style top, some fishnet tights and a leather jacket. Once she was all dressed and ready, throwing her hair up into two half-space buns with her usual cross pins, she grabbed her phone to message Lulu, spotting a response from Tadase first.

[From: Tadase-kun

Good, make sure to get a good nights sleep! You'll feel refreshed in the morning~ ^^
So, Amu-chan, what are you up to today? You probably just woke up.
Any plans?]

Amu responded with her plans with Lulu for lunch and inquired whether Tadase had something in mind himself. Sending the message and slipping her phone into her pocket, she headed downstairs to tell her parents she was going out.

Amu's mother agreed, as usual, giving her the usual spiel of 'don't be gone too late, be careful, don't talk to strangers' and so on. Amu smiled hand hugged her mother goodbye before going to the mudroom and sliding on her favorite combat boots.

"I'll see you later, mama!" Amu called as she grabbed her purse and ran out the door.

She closed the door behind her and messaged Lulu that she was just leaving her house. They decided to meet halfway. Unfortunately, Amu was already anxious about the feeling that someone was watching her. For some reason, despite knowing Saaya was supposedly not a problem anymore, she felt wary that she might still be watching her. Or maybe even having someone else watch for her. Being inside, she was fine, but whenever she went outside she suddenly felt anxious. She tried to get to the meeting spot as fast as possible.

Lulu called Amu over with a shout and a wave, eyeing her outfit. "Someone looks cute~"

Amu rolled her eyes. "I can't tell if you're teasing or not. Let's go, I'm getting freaked out being out here. I had another of those nightmares and I'm really paranoid."

Lulu just nodded and the two started walking. As they were walking, Amu's phone went off in her pocket. She took out her phone and looked at the lock screen to see what the notification was. It was a response from Tadase. Amu could sense the smirk on Lulu's face without even looking at her. Lulu nudged her in the rib playfully.

"Let me reply to this in peace," she said, rolling her eyes and stopping to open up her messages.

Knowing Lulu would be nosy, she turned and hid her screen with her hand as best as possible as she read Tadase's message. She also read it and replied as fast as possible so they could get out of such an open area.

[From: Tadase-kun

I was actually going to invite you out to lunch too, but I won't impose on you two.
When will you guys be done?
Have fun by the way!]

Amu smiled and responded quickly, humming as she thought about how long it would take Lulu and Amu, since sometimes they got carried away.

[To: Tadase-kun

It depends on how long we spend chatting. I'd say around 3 or 4? We can go out for dinner if you want. Or just chill after dinner for a bit. I don't mind either way!]

"Making date plans~?" Lulu teased her voice right next to Amu's ear. Amu jumped slightly, not realizing Lulu had gotten so close.

After recovering from her initial shock, Amu pushed Lulu's head away with her hand, rolling her eyes, laughing softly. "Don't be so nosy, Lulu. Let's go."

She took Lulu's arm and dragged her forward to get her moving as Lulu also chuckled. Lulu tried to tease her about how cute her and Tadase were, but Amu couldn't hear the gushing. She was already distracted by something else. Something less lighthearted. She could have sworn she heard another set of footsteps behind them right after they had started walking again.

"Hey, Lulu…" she said cautiously. "Is it just me or…are there other footsteps besides ours behind us?"

Lulu stopped again, not hesitating to turn around. Amu peeked over her shoulder also, too afraid to be as obvious as Lulu. Not surprisingly, there was nothing there. Lulu frowned and looked at Amu with furrowed brows, not even saying anything. She continued walking, tugging Amu around this time.

"I could have sworn I heard someone behind us…" Amu was muttering, peeking behind her again.

"This is a public path, it could've been anyone, Amu," Lulu said. "This Saaya thing is over with, remember?"

"R-right…" Amu sighed. "Sorry. I guess I'm jumping to conclusions because of my dreams."

"Dreams are dreams, Amu." Lulu patted Amu's arm gently. "Don't think too much of 'em. You're just influenced by your past events. Call it a sort of PTSD…but don't go around sayin you have that without being diagnosed by a professional."

Amu nodded slowly, taking in Lulu's words. However, despite trying to convince herself that she was overreacting, Amu was still on edge. She was always worried that her dreams would somehow come true. That kind of stuff happened, right? What was it called? Precognitive dreaming or something? But in real life, Tadase can't just appear out of nowhere and save the day. She didn't want to get Lulu involved either. Subconsciously, she ended up glancing behind her every few minutes, and every time, she could have sworn she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Trying not to think too much about it, she decided to chock it up to her being too sleep-deprived.

Finally, they arrived at the cafe that Lulu had wanted to go to and ordered their food and drinks. Unfortunately for Amu's nerves, Lulu insisted that they sit outside on the patio, since the weather was so nice. It took some convincing, but eventually, Amu agreed. As they sat down, Amu felt her phone go off and immediately assumed it was Tadase. She was a little nervous to check it, mainly because she was afraid she'd unleash all her worries. Regardless, she pulled her phone under the table in an attempt to hide from Lulu.

"Don't go tryin' that trick on me, Amu," Lulu said immediately. "That trick has existed for as long as cell phones have existed. I know you're textin' Tadase. What'd he say?"

Amu shook her head. "I didn't check yet…"

Amu looked down at her phone to open the message. This, apparently, was a good call, as she felt something whiz right past her head. Lulu yelped in surprise and Amu's eyes widened, her head jerking back up to see what had happened. A glass plate had been thrown in her general direction and had shattered against the wall that was a few empty seats right of them.

Amu instinctively brought her hand up to her head, making sure she wasn't bleeding or anything. With a sigh of relief, she put her hand back down; she hadn't been hit at all. For once, her ignorance of her surroundings went in her favor. For sure, if that had hit her, she might have been knocked out and/or cut by a shard if the plate had broken upon the contact of her head.

"Amu!" Lulu was calling out, though Amu barely hear it and it sounded tinny since her ears were still ringing from the rush of it all. "Are you okay?"

Amu managed a nod. "I'm…fine. It didn't hit me because my head was down."

Lulu frowned. "Goodness, that scared the heck outta me! Maybe you're right… Let's get out of here once we finish our food. That just gave me the heebie-jeebies."

Amu quickly nodded in agreement, not wanting to draw this out any longer. They finished their food and took off with their drinks, leaving the area as quickly as possible without full-on running. When they were far enough away, about halfway to Amu's house at that point, they slowed down. Amu took out her phone to check the message. Alongside Tadase's message, there was another message from an unknown, private number. For whatever reason, Amu opened the unknown number's message first.

[From: Unknown Number

You crossed a line you don't want to cross
Stay away from that cafe or next time I will kill you.
I won't miss next time.]

Amu felt shivers run down her spine. The writing sounded an awful lot like something Saaya would say and the formatting was similar to how the notes were formatted. It wasn't possible, though. Not only did Saaya not have Amu's phone number, last Amu had heard, Saaya was in a mental hospital with no access to a phone to rehabilitate herself. Without even realizing, she had clung closer to Lulu, deleting the message before Lulu could question her. She quickly checked on Tadase's message for a bit of solace. After all, it did save her life.

Tadase's message was just confirming their plans. He also told her to be careful and not do anything that would hurt herself even more. Thinking about that made her healing wound sting. She had gotten the stitches out a while ago but sometimes she still had ghost pains, and this time it was really bad. She made a pained face as she walked, which Lulu immediately noticed.

"Amu, what's wrong?" she asked, watching Amu limp slightly. "Did you sprain your ankle while we were trying to get out of there?"

Amu shrugged, looking down at her legs. "Maybe…I don't know. I don't think so… I-I think my ghost pains are just acting up for some reason…"

"Still?" Lulu inquired, her face contorting in concern. "Didn't you get the stitches out a couple weeks ago?"

Amu nodded. "Sometimes I get random ghost pains. The doctor said it was normal to still feel pain like that sometimes. Did you ever get to see the wounds, by the way?"

Lulu shook her head before shrugging. "No point now that they're healing though, right? Let's just go home and maybe we'll gossip about your boyfriend." she joked dryly in attempt to get Amu to relax

Amu actually managed a laugh and nodded for a third time, relieved to be able to go somewhere she knew would be safe. She tried not to tug Lulu too hard as she all but jogged towards her house, as it was the closer of the two. The faster she got home, the safer she'd feel.


A/N: Heyo, I'm back with the sequel to Jealousy Incarnate, since now that I fixed that one, I have to make the 2nd one make sense in context to the first one.

Here's what's probably going to be different (with as little spoilers as possible): the main differences are going to be the characters since I removed some characters from the first one as well as changed the arrangement of Amu's friends. However, for some reason, my 14-year-old self wanted some kind of supernatural stuff going on, and now that we have a mentally unstable Saaya, that probably isn't going to work as well, so that has been/will change as well.

I'm only about 14 chapters into this rewrite as I'm writing this, and I haven't touched the more intense chapters so who knows what else is going to change. I've had to use the original fanfic post to rewrite some chapters bc for some reason I only had a portion of my chapters properly saved, so I will be posting this chapter now and deleting the original soon after.

I'm not sure if anyone even reads these anymore but reviews are appreciated. I'm actually considering switching to AO3 so maybe if I can ever finish this story, any other story I might just post over there, Shugo Chara related or not. Though I'm sure I could post both as long as I'm clear I'm the author of both idk. ANYWAY, I'm rambling. I'll see you guys whenever I decide to post the next chapter. Ja ne!